Welcome to Windows 7 Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find support and solutions for any problems regarding your Windows 7 PC be it Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or a custom build. We also provide an extensive Windows 7 tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

I reviewed your post again. If I'm interpreting your instructions correctly, instead of me using Langa's repair install method, I would use the following step in the SevenForums tutorial, correct? I'll not start anything until I hear back from you!

A) While in Windows 7 SP1, insert your retail Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD into the DVD drive, or connect your Windows 7 with SP1 installation USB thumb drive, and click on the Run setup.exe option in AutoPlay. (see screenshot below)NOTE:If the AutoPlay window does not open, then open the drive folder in Computer and run the setup.exe file.

B) Go to Go to step 7 below.

[/ QUOTE]

Sorry to be asking so many questions, but I fall into the category that Murphy's Law hangs over my head like a plague.

Something in the SF method above has me totally confused or I'm simply missing the boat...

Okay as a prerequisite, the instructions state "If you do not have a Windows 7 with SP1 installation DVD/USB, then you can download the latest official Windows 7 with SP1 ISO file..."

Then the next step is "A) While in Windows 7 SP1, insert your retail Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD into the DVD drive, or connect your Windows 7 with SP1 installation USB thumb drive, and click on the Run setup.exe option in AutoPlay..." then jump to Step 7 to begin the reinstall process while my retail DVD is in the drive.

If so, why is the ISO copy created & where is it used? Or, is it considered th retail version now?

PSU n/a Hard Drives 750GB Seagate internal
Sundry external drives attached to other computers on the local network
1TB on the Lenovo Internet Speed as much as I can get - usually on a dongle, so <1Mb/s Antivirus MSE Browser IE11/Chrome/FF(if I must)

PSU n/a Hard Drives 750GB Seagate internal
Sundry external drives attached to other computers on the local network
1TB on the Lenovo Internet Speed as much as I can get - usually on a dongle, so <1Mb/s Antivirus MSE Browser IE11/Chrome/FF(if I must)

After a lengthy process everything seems to be working nominally again with one rather annoying exception.

I still have a black desktop & when I tried to open Personalization to set a new theme Windows Explorer crashed! ARGH! This was another issue I had along with the WU & Explorer crashes. However, when I accessed Personalization again through the CP I was able to set a new desktop theme. Any thoughts on why that may have happened?

System Update Readiness Tool problem...

Windows update and system update readiness tool problem.I have am currently running IE9 and see an error code of 9C59 when installing the update to IE11.
The Windows Update Troubleshooter reported the service registeration is missing or corrupt (not fixed), and the Windows updat error 0x80070490(2014-12-12-T-07_49_01P) (not fixed).
I then downloaded...

Windows Updates & Activation

System Update Readiness Tool problem...Hello, everyone !
I have been unable to install some updates for some time now due to corrupt files. The System Update Readiness Tool gave the following results:
=================================
Checking System Update Readiness.
Binary Version 6.1.7601.21645
Package Version 11.0...